In Baldur's Gate we took a corpse to Arkion and pickpocketted both him and Nemphre. Imoen fumbled a bi with Nemphre so that whilst she got the ring, Nemphre became hostile and Imoen had to either kill her or flee. She chose the latter course of action.
We then took the items to Ordunilion who amply rewarded us for them.
To the North-east Larze picked a fight with us and paid the penalty.
Jardak and his butler then attacked us, admittedly with good cause, and they too met their doom.
A basilisk died next after we had sensibly taken precautionary measures.
We then acted as if we were the Baldur's Gate Child Protection Agency.
Admittedly killing Ramazith wasn't necessary despite his evil character. It was however satisfying.
In a floating cess pit of depravity we were attacked by a couple who were fascinated by death. We satisfied their curiosity to the full.
We were then attacked upstairs in Sorcerous Sundries where a summoned skeleton quicklly proved his worth.
We then left the Gate for a while to finish some unfinished business. In the process we killed a vicious mage or two.
After Marek had poisoned us, we had to kill him for the antidote. Doing so left us with no remorse whatsoever.
We were then attacked by the fastest dart thrower in the west, at least he might have been if he hadn't been webbed.
We then killed yet more assassins.
Hopefully the Sword Coast is now a safer place. We then tried to help Rasaad.
Sadly, there was no happy ending. We were then asked to discover what the Iron Throne's involvement with the problems of the Sword Coast was. We did so and in the process met with a right Prat and his cronies.
Ajantis and I then went spider hunting as we were protected against web. Unfortunately one of them teleported and poisoned Branwen. She took a potion but was immediately poisoned again. She therefore moved away and Yeslick moved between them. Whilst she took another potion Yeslick healed her and by then we arrived back on the scene and we all managed to survive.
Upon seeing some statues reminiscent of the basilisk area, I cast protections upon Ajantis and myself and we were able to kill the basilisks before leaving the keep by a secret exit.
We then returned to Baldur's Gate where we rescued Duke Eltan.
We managed to avoid killing Cythandria, but had to kill Slythe and Krystin.
We managed to defeat Saravok and his doppelganger allies, but not without hurt to both myself and the dukes.
Aldain, Human Conjurer, Update 12 Previous update found here Next update found here
Spells memorized (standard stuff really, spell protections/Spell Thrust/Mirror Image/PfE 10' radius... and of course, the staple of our "tactics", Animate Dead) we set out for the undercellar. We actually let the Skeleton Warriors do all the work. Krystin is way too high-level for us to want to tank her spells if we have an alternative. We do assist by throwing in 2 Remove Magic, which do precisely nothing about Krystin, but do knock down every buff from Slythe. He falls, and after a VERY long time (I think Krystin cast Stoneskin 4 times...) his wife does, too.
Yeah, the "Replace +1 weapons with fine ones" component has the annoying side-effect of making the Skeleton Warriors weaker by giving them fine weapons instead of +1 ones. I hope at least the 9 HD version gets a magical greatsword, otherwise they won't be very useful in BG2.
We swipe the invitations. Next up, the Iron Throne building (again). Cythandria doesn't stand a chance, distracted as she is by our trusty skeletons while Khalid and Jaheira see to her two Stone Golem guards.
Alright. Time to do or die. Literally. We must NOT fail to protect the Dukes during the palace battle. We prepare with every buff available, and also hand out the really good stuff potion-wise: Storm Giant Strength, Invulnerability, Heroism... if it can help, we quaff it. We send our Skeleton Warriors ahead to form a (un-)living shield between the Dukes and their would-be assassins. The rest of the party moves in, and we're off. Aldain has a 2x Horror sequencer ready, and it proves to be a good choice: Only a few Dopplegangers manage to make both their saves.
We're left with a Doppleganger Assassin, Greater Doppleganger, Doppleganger Mage and Doppleganger Shaman. Fortunately neither the Shaman nor Mage gets to prebuff. The Shaman falls to repeated applications of Wand of the Heavens by Branwen, never getting a spell off. The Mage lasts the longest, unsurprisingly, but is frequently interrupted (I dispatched 2 of our 5 Skeleton Warriors after him) and eventually dies without having accomplished much, Skeletons being notoriously unconcerned with Emotion: Hopelessness. With our veritable wall of bone shielding the (both still very much living) Dukes, Sarevok is powerless to do anything but flee, really. Hooray, the dukes are saved!
We carve a path through the Thieve's Maze, and in very short order arrive at the underground city. Here, we're really not in the mood for any risk-taking, and so the Sembian group gets to experience the joy of 6 Fireballs from afar. Which two of them survive, impressively enough, but it's just the melee goons, so they don't last long after.
I don't know what happened with Tamoko.. I had wanted to talk her out of her kamikaze stunt, but I guess she talked to Khalid instead of Aldain, the former not being known as a great orator. At any rate, she attacks, and gets the same treatment as the Sembians. Sorry Tamoko, we've come to far to die to a freak Flame Strike now...
Neither Tamoko's Full Plate +1 or the magical plate mail (which I forget the name of) found on the ground is of any use, of course, as we are a lightly armored party for the most part. Still, they look pretty in our inventory.
So, preparations. Improved Sarevok is no cake-walk. You literally can't kill him until you've killed all his cronies, he gets an extra follower (Diarmid, a fighter with bow/spear) who pops a Protection from Magic scroll, and whenever you kill a follower, a Skeleton Warrior (the nasty type with a Two Handed Sword) spawns in its place. This battle tends to drag out, and Semaj in particular is so brutally over-leveled he will completely destroy your buffs anyway with a single Remove Magic, so short-duration buffs aren't much use. Typically you'll want to use Oils of Speed (mainly so you can reposition quickly), any and every potion you have since they last fairly long, and just hope you don't fail a crucial save, given that Semaj and Angelo both enjoy their Chaos.
We load up on spells. Animate Dead (4x on Branwen, 1x on Aldain), Shadow Door on Aldain in case he needs a quick escape (the boost to saving throws from being Improved Invisible is golden), Chaos x1 and Hold Monster x1 on Xan, Greater Malison, Emotion, MGoI for when the spell-fighting is at its heaviest. Other spells really don't matter much. We will be mostly using wands (Wands of Fire, Heavens, Monster Summoning), but that singular slot spent on Chaos will prove completely invaluable.
We move inside. Angelo and Tazok somehow know we've entered and immediately start gulping potions, but they don't come after us. We summon our bone-wall, apply PfE10'R, Mirror Image+Shield on Aldain and Xan (the latter using Shield Amulet), and blow a Haste scroll to Haste the skeletons. Everyone else quaffs an Oil of Speed, and we move up (as said, Semaj will likely dispel all our buffs anyway, so we wait with additional potions until they are needed). Short dialogue, then it's fightin' time!
Two Skeletons are left to momentarily distract Sarevok and Tazok, while the other 3 are sent after Semaj. Diarmid shows himself, and we fortunately manage to get a Flamestrike in before he goes magic-immune, nice! Everyone focuses on Diarmid, though we haven't got much choice: Semaj has his ridicolous protections up, including PfMW and GoI (note: NOT Minor GoI which I had hoped. So our Spell Thrust is useless, and we didn't prepare Secret Word. Damnit! We'll have to wait him out then) so there's not much point attacking him, Angelo likewise is heavily protected, and Tazok is next to Sarevok so difficult to safely beat on for Khalid and Jaheira. Also, Tazok just isn't very dangerous, being a slow-moving pure melee monster.
During all this, Imoen managed to get a critical hit on Sarevok with an Arrow of Dispelling, removing his permanent haste. Yes! That's absolutely crucial, as hasted Sarevok is just really bad news. Sarevok and Tazok take longer than I thought to cleave through our skeletons. I send another 2 to delay them further, keeping only one skeleton to soak up spells from Semaj. Somewhere around here, Diarmid drops, and we swiftly destroy his Skeletal form as well.
This is where things begin to unravel. Semaj kills his attendant Skeleton Warrior (I think using Melf's Minute Meteors), Angelo dispels our fire protections (we quaffed potions after the initial Remove Magic by Semaj) and starts firing Arrows of Detonation, and Sarevok + Tazok finally cut through the fourth Skeleton Warrior blocking them. We use Wand of Monster Summoning for more fodder, but they die rapidly. It's looking bleak, with both Semaj and Angelo casting spells at will, protected by GoI (MGoI for Angelo), Stoneskin and Mirror Image. Then, somehow, Xan... Xan the Glorious, Xan the Enchanter, throws his one and only Chaos spell into the mix... and it sticks on BOTH Semaj and Angelo, with Aldain dispelling Angelo's MGoI with Spell Thrust at the same time! Oh, happy day!
It's still, of course, pointless trying to harm Semaj (especially given his Fire Shield: Red), but Angelo... oh, Angelo is fair game. While Branwen is mercilessly beating Tazok down with incessant Flame Strikes, everyone else turns on Angelo.
We hammer and slash and bludgeon and burn him, but he survives! Comes out of his Confusion, goes invisible... and then Semaj steps up to the plate. Also free of his confusion, Semaj uses a scroll of Fireball aimed at our constantly resummoned fodder, burning them to a crisp, but in the process also taking care of Angelo for us. Thank you, Semaj!
Now that Semaj is down to 3rd level and lower spells (and that damnable Fire Shield: Red, along with GoI, have finally worn off), we beat him down very rapidly, assisted by dual Flame Strikes from Branwen and Jaheira.
Without his spell-casting buddies, Sarevok is worse than useless. We even manage to land a Slow on him, serving to further humiliate him. This picture was taken roughly two rounds before the big bad drops. So helpless...
We did it! Hooray, hooray, hooray! Aldain is a Level 9 Human Conjurer, with 161000 XP, a spellbook filled to bursting with all manner of arcane secrets, and has shamelessly hogged all the tomes for himself!
I'd like to add that we, as always, got a bit lucky. Semaj got off Chaos as did Angelo, but Aldain made his save against the former, and Khalid had just enough time to activate the Greenstone Amulet to foil the latter. I imagine a confused Aldain could've spelt disaster quickly, had he wandered into 5 traps, or roamed too close to Sarevok. Still, it's not the first time fortune favored us this run.
Soon, we shall go to Amn, I think. For now, we'll lean back, have an Ale (only a thimble in Xan's case... lightweight), and contemplate our great success.
@Wise_Grimwald Thank you! No, I'm not planning on SoD with this character, he'll go straight to SoA. I've actually not played SoD yet... I imagine when I do, I'll go through with something more robust than a Conjurer the first time (my go-to character for an almost indestructible protagonist that still has tactical options is usually the Dwarven Fighter/Cleric).
@Blind_Visionary Thank you! Sarevok and Davaeorn are my achilles heel, it seems.. no matter what tactic I adopt or how well I prepare, I always end up running these two battles a little too fast and loose for my liking (with Davaeorn we were a single failed save against Sunfire from an ended run). I like to think I would've been able to deal with it had Aldain gotten Confused, but you can never be sure.
@lroumen , I'm not sure what you mean by "purple pink hand", as I don't see one, but are you possibly referring to Semaj standing there with Mirror Images and Protection from Normal Missiles? It appears that @CrevsDaak chose to focus on killing Sarevok and ignored Semaj, since he also appears to have read a green scroll of Protection from Magic. Although I'm not sure how he handled Sarevok without any magical buffs or potions.
Edit: Wait, I see buffs on the character portrait. Does the green scroll not negate potion buffs? If so, I didn't know that.
I am wondering whether Dynaheir still remembers spells learnt in BG1 when she gets to SoD.
Steinarr traveled with Dynie in BG1 and SoD. I'm almost totally certain that she will retain her spellbook. Don't worry when she says she has to go back to Rashemen after the first dungeon... It's not hard to track her down. Hamsters and rangers everywhere, rejoice!
@lroumen , I'm not sure what you mean by "purple pink hand", as I don't see one, but are you possibly referring to Semaj standing there with Mirror Images and Protection from Normal Missiles? It appears that @CrevsDaak chose to focus on killing Sarevok and ignored Semaj, since he also appears to have read a green scroll of Protection from Magic. Although I'm not sure how he handled Sarevok without any magical buffs or potions.
Edit: Wait, I see buffs on the character portrait. Does the green scroll not negate potion buffs? If so, I didn't know that.
I know what he means. One of the mages who has cast mirror image looks just like a purple /pink hand.
@lroumen , I'm not sure what you mean by "purple pink hand", as I don't see one, but are you possibly referring to Semaj standing there with Mirror Images and Protection from Normal Missiles? It appears that @CrevsDaak chose to focus on killing Sarevok and ignored Semaj, since he also appears to have read a green scroll of Protection from Magic. Although I'm not sure how he handled Sarevok without any magical buffs or potions.
Edit: Wait, I see buffs on the character portrait. Does the green scroll not negate potion buffs? If so, I didn't know that.
I know what he means. One of the mages who has cast mirror image looks just like a purple /pink hand.
Edit: Wait, I see buffs on the character portrait. Does the green scroll not negate potion buffs? If so, I didn't know that.
The protection from magic scroll takes away any existing potion buffs. However, it doesn't prevent you adding potions afterwards (though it does stop your spell casting).
Because I didn't want to miss any new EE content, I looked up how to trigger the new NPC quests and learned that I could do Neera's quest right now. Turns out it was quite easy, with me only having to fight a few goblins, their hobgoblin boss and finally a red wizard party. I kept the level 1 Neera out of combat, while Jaheira used a wand of fear (affecting the lesser red wizard) and wand of the heavens charges. Imoen and Lirilis threw their nukes at Ekandor, the stoneskinned mage, and the others tried to keep the remaining enemies busy:
Now, for the actual reason I didn't enter the iron mines - I completely forgot about the firewine dungeon. Carefully fighting my way through traps and kobold commandos, I scouted Lendarn's position with an invisible Safana and started throwing some fireballs - however, his robe of fire resistance protected him quite well, so I just went for a backstab, not wanting to waste any more charges:
With that out of the way, I returned to the iron mines. Down at level 2, I once again relied on various fireball tools (I have enough wands and amulets, no need for potions yet) to deal with Hareishan and her troops:
I picked up Yeslick, and I even brought equipment for him with me (the +2 hammer, a full plate, a shield +1, a RoP +1, a sling +1 and bullets).
Level three went quite well, with both Natasha and the ogre mage unable to successfully cast a spell before the party took them out.
My Davaeorn tactic was very simple: Buff Khalid with hill giant strength, protection from fire, protection from lightning and just let him solo the mage, having some defensive potions at the ready in case something unexpected happens:
With his fireball and lightning spells doing nothing, his attempt at summoning disrupted and Khalid quickly dealing damage, the battle was quickly won.
Before really exploring the city of Baldur's Gate, I took care of the other two new companion quests. However, I soon realized I had to lower my reputation to pick up Dorn again, so I went stealing in Beregost, getting caught on purpose. BTW, unlike Neera and Rasaad Dorn somehow got some experience while not actually being in my party and rejoined as his level 6 version?
Anyway, the battle against Simmeon was fairly easy:
And maybe Imoen will be able to use this new elven mail when she regains her thief levels.
Finally, Rasaads quest took a little bit longer to finish. The dark moon monks were easy to defeat, but getting blinded all the time was really annoying, especially because of the long duration. I made it to the top of the cloudpeak mountains without any problems until right before the final battle - when a fireball trap killed Rasaad, forced me to go back to Nashkell and climb all the way up again...
Well, the battle itself was rather easy, though the reward was relatively slim. From an effort/reward perspective, Dorn's quest is certainly the most useful one to do, even if one doesn't plan to take him along (and he and Baeloth are so much stronger than Neera and Rasaad, it's not even funny. Once again, the real reward for playing evil characters is having access to better NPCs).
[edit: Not true: I forgot that Rasaad's quest provided me with the cursed belt of hill giant strength, which is just amazing for Khalid (I don't really need him to be able to use wands anyway)].
Now, I finally started doing all of the Baldur's Gate sidequests and battles. Only a few noteworthy things happened: When returning Alatos' quest (as I already had helped Narlen), a short cutscene started - in which Narlen was supposed to backstab Resar. However, instead, nothing happened and Resar didn't even turn hostile. Instead, when talking to Alatos again, he acted as if I hadn't been able to secure the items, and I had to kill Resar myself. Very strange bug:
As you can see, Narlen even has a line of dialogue, but he just never appeared! It seems he just vanished from existence.
BTW, as you can see I decided to get Yeslick into my party once again. Afaik this version of the game has an experience cap (unlike BGT, which I normally use), so there's no reason not to play with a full party. I also recruited Eldoth and Skie for a short time, talked to Tiax and compared Alora to Safana, but I'm happy with Safana's thief ability points right now and don't want to wait until another thief is good enough at everything I need her to do. Yeslick fits into the party quite well, contributing chant, holy smite and other useful buffs, and he's a good melee fighter.
While completing all of the city sidequests, Lirilis gained her next level! The first fourth level spell - and it was: Fireshield: blue. Well. Another very mediocre pick. I'm really hoping the next (and propably final) level up will provide her with something really powerful.
Most of the tougher fights (ogre mages, helm&cloak party etc.) were quite easy with Imoen's new spell selection (which includes haste). The only two minor incidents occured when fighting a) the sewer ogre mage: I failed at preventing him from casting confusion, but only Khalid (who was wearing a stolen free action ring) was affected, and he still tanked the carrion crawlers while confused:
The other mishap happened during the first battle at Degrodel's house, where Safana got stuck in a corner while beging attacked by a helmed horror, forcing me to use another invisibilty potion to save her:
The second fight, however, went very well.
Finally, I went to investigate the Iron Throne, and for the final fight there I just lured the enemies downstairs into my waiting and buffed party:
Now, on to Candlekeep!
Current level: 8 Current randomized Spellbook: First level spells: Chill touch, shocking grasp, chromatic orb, blindness, friends Second level spells: Luck, deafness, stinking cloud Third level spells: Hold undead, lightning bolt Fourth level spells: Fireshield: blue
Alright, I had some time so delved a ways into SoA. Already a near miss, and an incident that got me so mad I had to take a few minutes to calm down...
BG2EE, carrying over my character from BG1EE. Core Rules at all times, and random hitpoints on level up. Mods: Just SCS, almost a full install. I skipped Improved Vampires. My reasoning is that it's buggy (they get stuck in bat form a lot) and just no fun. Vampires go from being fairly easy with correct preparations to absolute nightmares for a party of almost any level. I also really don't appreciate having to chase them over the entire map when they turn into bats and run off. Weidu log:
// Log of Currently Installed WeiDU Mods // The top of the file is the 'oldest' mod // ~TP2_File~ #language_number #component_number // [Subcomponent Name -> ] Component Name [ : Version] ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #1000 // Initialise mod (all other components require this): v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #1910 // Protection from Normal Missiles also blocks Arrows of Fire/Cold/Acid and similar projectiles without pluses: v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2000 // Allow Spellstrike to take down a Protection from Magic scroll: v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2010 // More consistent Breach spell (always affects liches and rakshasas; doesn't penetrate Spell Turning): v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2030 // Iron Skins behaves like Stoneskin (can be brought down by Breach): v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2041 // Modify the Harm spell so it does damage rather than reducing target to 1 hp -> Enemy and player Harm spells both do 150 hp of damage: v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2050 // Allow individual versions of Spell Immunity to be placed into Contingencies and Spell Triggers: v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2070 // Blade Barrier and Globe of Blades only affect hostile creatures: v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2080 // Cap damage done by Skull Trap at 12d6: v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2090 // Make Power-Word: Blind single-target: v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2100 // Make Minute Meteors into +2 weapons: v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2111 // Reduce the power of Inquisitors' Dispel Magic -> Inquisitors dispel at their level (not twice their level): v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2120 // Slightly weaken insect plague spells, and let fire shields block them: v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2140 // Slightly increase the power of Mantle, Improved Mantle, and Absolute Immunity: v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2150 // Make spell sequencers, spell triggers, and contingencies learnable by all mages: v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2160 // Add an extra copy of some hard-to-find spell scrolls: v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2170 // True Sight/True Seeing spells protect from magical blindness: v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2180 // Prevent Simulacra and Projected Images from using magical items: v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #3010 // Replace +1 arrows with nonmagical "fine" ones: v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #3020 // Replace +1 magical weapons with Fine ones: v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #3050 // Remove the Shield of Balduran from the game: v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #3060 // Remove the invisibility power of the Staff of the Magi: v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #3070 // Move Vhailor's Helm into Throne of Bhaal: v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #3080 // Move the Cloak of Mirroring: v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #3090 // Move the Robe of Vecna into Throne of Bhaal: v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #3100 // Make the healing and resurrection powers of the Rod of Resurrection into separate abilities: v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #3110 // Change Carsomyr so that its Dispel on contact power grants a saving throw: v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4010 // Grant large, flying, non-solid or similar creatures protection from Web and Entangle: v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4030 // Improved shapeshifting: v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4093 // Decrease the rate at which reputation improves -> Reputation increases at about 1/4 the normal rate: v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4180 // Make Freedom scrolls available earlier: v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4215 // Remove unrealistically helpful items from certain areas: v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4218 // Remove unrealistically convenient ammunition from certain areas -> Remove all ammo from random containers: v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4230 // Delay the arrival of the "bonus merchants" in the Adventurers' Mart and the Copper Coronet: v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4240 // Treat mages' and priests' High-Level Abilities as innate abilities rather than memorisable spells (each may be taken only once): v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #5000 // Ease-of-use party AI: v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #5010 // Move Boo into Minsc's pack: v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #5020 // Remove the blur graphic effect from the Cloak of Displacement: v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #5030 // Remove animation from the Cloak of Mirroring (leave it for other spells and effects that use the same graphic): v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #5900 // Initialise AI components (required for all tactical and AI components): v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6000 // Smarter general AI: v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6010 // Better calls for help: v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6020 // Add high-level abilities (HLAs) to spellcasters -> Only selected spellcasters in Throne of Bhaal get HLAs: v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6030 // Smarter Mages -> Mages cast some short-duration spells instantly at start of combat, to simulate pre-battle casting: v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6040 // Smarter Priests -> Priests cast some short-duration spells instantly at start of combat, to simulate pre-battle casting: v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6104 // Potions for NPCs -> All of the potions dropped by slain enemies break and are lost: v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6200 // Improved Spiders: v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6500 // Improved golems: v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6510 // Improved fiends -> Fiends have about 50 percent more hit points than normal: v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6520 // Smarter genies -> Genies have about 50 percent more hit points than normal: v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6530 // Smarter celestials -> Celestials have about 50 percent more hit points than normal: v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6540 // Smarter dragons -> Dragons have a substantial hit point increase: v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6551 // Smarter beholders -> Don't give beholder rays any chance of burning through spell protections; beholder antimagic blocks all spells, including harmful ones, for a round (simulates D&D rules): v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6561 // Smarter mind flayers -> Illithids have enhanced damage resistance; Illithids can see through invisibility (matches Tactics mod): v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6570 // Smarter githyanki: v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6590 // Smarter Throne of Bhaal final villain: v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8000 // Make the starting dungeon slightly harder: v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8020 // Spellcasting Demiliches: v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8030 // More resilient trolls: v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8050 // Improved Random Encounters: v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8061 // Improved de'Arnise Keep ("Tactics Remix") -> Enhanced spirit trolls (as in Tactics): v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8070 // Improved Unseeing Eye: v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8100 // Improved battle with Irenicus in Spellhold: v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8110 // Improved Sahuagin: v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8120 // Improved Beholder hive (adapted from Quest Pack): v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8130 // Prevent resting in the Illithid city: v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8140 // Slightly Improved Drow -> Upgrade Ust Natha's defences: v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8150 // Slightly Improved Watcher's Keep: v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8160 // Improved Fire Giant temple: v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8170 // Enhanced Sendai's Enclave: v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8180 // Improved Abazigal's Lair: v30 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8190 // Improved Minor Encounters: v30
Aldain, Human Conjurer: BG2EE update 1 Final BG1EE update found here Next update found here
I emerge into Irenicus' dungeon with a full set of spells memorized, albeit not an optimal setup for the current predicament. Nevertheless, an Animate Dead, MGoI, Stoneskin and some damage spells remain useful. The entire initial dungeon goes very smoothly; we rest once and have a healthy supply of Potions of Extra Healing by the end.
Now, we're out and resting up at the Gilded Vale. My intended party is Minsc / Jaheira / Yoshimo later replaced by Imoen / Anomen / Mazzy. Bit of a difference from our BG1 party, we'll be a lot beefier this time around. So, first thing's first, we need to go pick up Anomen. No worries there, though when leaving the Slums we of course get ambushed by Suna Seni and friends. We do mostly alright, but Suna herself just won't stop dogging Yoshimo's steps. I had Invisibility in a Minor Sequencer and tried to target Yoshimo with it, but as the sequencer also contained Mirror Image, it for some reason refused to cast on him? I would've thought Invisibility would go off, but the Mirror Image would fail. Annoying. Once their no-name Mage lands a Slow on Yoshimo, Suna wears him down to nothing a few seconds before she falls herself. This is apparently an omen of things to come...
Here I momentarily slipped up a little: I not only forgot to travel to the Government district to talk with Delyn (Delryn? The boy from Imnesvale) to get Imnesvale to show up on the map, I also just went to the Gate district and straight to Windspear Hills. Not sure what I was thinking, as I had no business there... of course, I end up having to kill off a bunch of paladins. At least we can use their Plate Mail this early on. Following this, we spend the night at Garren's, followed by the usual ambush. For some strange reason, Plath Rededge does not prebuff with Iron Skins (maybe she's just a cleric?), and so goes down very swiftly.
It's time for our first close call. On our way back to Athkatla to rectify our mistake, we get the dozen or so Orogs with a few slavers ambush. These guys are just sickeningly dangerous in SCS, not sure if it's intended. They all pop Barbarian Rage, hit for 20-25 damage (and they hit almost every swing), and they're backed up by a no-name Mage who seems to have memorized nothing but Chaos in her 5th level slots.
It actually looks bleak for a while. Minsc gets confused, but thankfully runs off to the edge, so he doesn't get swarmed and killed. Anomen is ALSO confused, and likewise buggered off somewhere. So it's Aldain, Jaheira and Yoshimo, frantically running around, trying to avoid the Orogs while plinking at the Mage with whatever we've got on hand. Of course, the Orogs occasionally catch up, doling out some severe pain. Aldain's last Stoneskin gives out, just as he fires off a Chaos, which surprisingly enough sticks (even on the Mage), and we manage to sort out the situation (Minsc and Anomen finally shaking off their confusion helps), though it's too late for Jaheira, who falls (not chunked, thankfully). I really don't like this ambush...
We make it back, have Anomen raise Jaheira (at least that saves us some money), get Imnesvale to pop on the map, and head back out. Minsc has the Sword of Chaos +2 and Jaheira the Staff Spear +2, courtesy of Xzar (yeah, on the way we of course got yet another ambush, the one with the poisoned harper), so we can hurt the shadows. We've even prepared a few Free Action on Anomen to render the Shadow Fiends moot. A few relatively easy battles later, our party is finally complete. For some reason, we got Mazzy at her 161k XP version, but immediately after this screenshot she gained about 100k XP. Bug or intended? I haven't played BG2EE in a while, so don't know. It's good news anyway, as it means we get to dictate where her L9 proficiency goes (she gets a pip in Axes, as there are so many nice ones in SoA, and in the very very long run I want her wielding Axe of the Unyielding +5).
As long as we're here, we may as well clear the dungeon up to the Shade Lord (whom we will not be engaging, since Improved Shade Lord is just... wrong. I contemplated not installing him, but went with it anyway. We'll save him for much later). There's not much interesting loot, but there are a few L6 spell scrolls we want. We don't have much trouble, apart from the Bone Golem dealing frightening amounts of damage before going down. I guess it heard the Shadows calling for help and came on over.
We also finished the Ibratha quest, because Mirror Image on Mazzy is nice.
Alright. It's time for red-hot anger. We make it back to Athkatla uninterrupted, and help Anomen with his sister's murder (we take the good path, given that we don't want him going nuts later). On the way to the Gilded Vale, we are, of course, ambushed by yet another party of no-names. Literally, they don't have names. Slaver, Slaver, Slaver, Slaver Mage. Pfeh.
So we get down to brass tacks. I notice that Yoshimo takes 6 acid damage from something, but don't think much of it. We grind the slavers down, and then the Mage.. oh that bloody Mage. The Mage, the no-name, anonymous, crappy Slaver Mage casts Chromatic Orb at Yoshimo. Apparently this Mage is at least level 10, but not level 12 or higher. Yoshimo fails his save... and is petrified.
At this point, I pause the game to collect my thoughts. We have no Stone to Flesh scroll (neither the Mage spell or the green scroll), and we're in an "ambush" area. It should be fine though; We'll buy a green scroll, then keep moving between zones to trigger another ambush, and Yoshimo should be there waiting for us. Alright, we got a plan!
I unpause. Slaver Mage starts to cast an Evocation, and I'll be damned if I don't think she's flippin' us off while doing it. Her Sunfire finishes, and, well... at least Yoshimo doesn't have to worry about his Geas anymore. Or anything at all, for that matter. The rubble formerly known as Yoshimo can be seen to the left in this screenshot.
You'll note this Mage almost killed off a large swath of the party while at it. We manage to cleave through her endless Stoneskins before anyone else drops, however. At this point I had to pause and rant a bit at the screen to keep from exploding. Yoshimo, WHY did you fail your save vs spell with a +6 bonus?! WHY was the Mage precisely in the span L10-L11? WHY didn't we kill her faster? Sigh.
We go to the Slums, and pick up Jan (we've little choice, we need a thief until Imoen gets back). I leave the party at the Copper Coronet. I loaded an autosave, just to check what stuff we permanently lost now that Yoshimo is no more. Thankfully, it was nothing critical: A few potions that are easily replaced, some Bracers AC8 intended for Imoen, and (this is annoying) some 20 scrolls I was saving for her to memorize. Only a Contingency scroll was above L4 though (and she already knows Contingency when you pick her up), and nothing critical or rare.
I've been thinking about how to prevent this from happening again, but I really don't know how. It's incredibly difficult to kill pre-buffed SCS mages before they get several spells off (they're freakishly annoying in how they seemingly on purpose target characters trying to dispel their illusions with Melf's Minute Meteors, though perhaps this is just my imagination). And as far as I know, every single SCS ambush contains at least one Mage. I'm wondering if I should just refrain from fighting the ambushes (I always travel under Invisibility, so just running away is an option)? They're good XP, but usually garbage loot, and if it means I risk loosing characters permanently... eh, I'll think about it. I'm not sure if I'll continue the run, should I suffer a perma-death of one of my preferred party members. Hopefully I won't have to find out.
Anyway, as said, the party is currently at the Copper Coronet, preparing to do some simple stuff we haven't cleared yet (the Circus and the Slavers). Aldain is now a Level 10 Human Conjurer (very soon Level 11), and rolled a 6 (Hooray!) for hitpoints at level up. Note that he has more HP than he should: It seems that, even though my familiar got removed on importing, he kept the bonus hitpoints from it, in addition to the 12 HP he got from resummoning it. Think it's a known bug, but I'm not complaining.
Lirilis, female lawful good elven dragon disciple with a randomized spellbook, update 5
In Candlekeep, I explored the library, killed the iron throne leaders, cleared the catacombs and eventuall fought Prat, buffed with bless, chant, remove fear, haste and defensive harmony:
Back at Baldur's Gate, I first rescued Eltan, got arrested, killed Sarevok's girlfriend, and then fought Slythe and Krystin, using Albruin's very useful detect invisibility option.
The duchal palace fight was relatively close - I decided not to use any potions and aoe spells, which resulted in Liia dying and Belt taking some damage. Ultimately, the party was victorious, and more importantly, Lirilis gained her next (and final) level, as did Imoen, who thus regains her thief abilities.
Now, for my randomized spellpicks: For level 2, we got detect invisibilty - fairly useful. Level 3 is skull trap, which is by all accounts a great spell, except that I personally, despite knowing its power, hate it and pretty much never use it. Ah well, maybe I'll give it another chance. Fourth level is farsight. Well, if I ever want to abuse the farsight + summons interaction in BG2, I can do that know... Not a big fan of that, it feels a little bit cheesy.
Overall, I'm not thrilled with my BG1 spellpicks, though they could certainly be worse. What I really miss is a decent defensive spell (fireshield: blue doesn't really count, as the only defense it actually improves is cold resistance, which is mostly useless).
Now, with Imoen regaining her thief levels, I kicked Safana out of the party and picked up my final party member: Ajantis. He's joining because he can use bastard swords (great for Balduran's Island), and you can never have enough fighting power.
Anyway, starting with TotSC content, I visited the ice island first. I removed Khalid's belt with a scroll and had him use a protection from magic scroll (since, for some reason, while you can still cast most green scrolls on other people, it seems that in EE, the ability to do that with protection from magic has been removed).
Khalid soloed most of the place, with the party only helping against the Ankhegs:
The experience here brought Ajantis to level 6. Both of his proficiency points were invested in dual wielding. He'll mostly be using Albruin + Kondar.
At Balduran's Island, the party quickly made their way to the shipwreck. In addition to buffs, I used some potions here: Defense for Lirilis, Agility for everyone with less than 18 dexterity, strength and hilll giant strength for everyone with below 18 strength and heroism for those who could use it. This provided the party with good damage output and armor class score - since everyone had to be involved in melee combat.
Upstairs, Karoug was defeated by Khalid, Jaheira and Ajantis who used the anti-werewolf weapons (though only Ajantis has the proficiencies to actually use them well):
Kaishas was defeated in the same way, and although Mendas and his companion did some damage to no longer potion-buffed party, they didn't really stand a chance:
Now, Durlag's Tower and Sarevok himself remain.
Current level: 9 Current randomized Spellbook: First level spells: Chill touch, shocking grasp, chromatic orb, blindness, friends Second level spells: Luck, deafness, stinking cloud, detect invisibility Third level spells: Hold undead, lightning bolt, skull trap Fourth level spells: Fireshield (blue), farsight
Hi guys, I'm currently playing a d&d 3.5 campaign with a Dread Necromancer and I love it! So obviously I decided to create it to play the full BG saga. Considering I play iOS version of the game and have no mods I will just follow some house rules.
Class: Cleric/Mage Race: Half-Elf Spells: Can cast all Necromancy school spells and those he can cast in d&d. For example Spook, Blindness, Dispel Magic, Acid Fog and so on even if not from necromancy. Charnel touch: unfortunately this ability cannot be replied properly, the DN will be able to cast cure spells to cure ONLY himself as he has Tomb Tainted Soul feat. Advanced learning: to reply this ability and give the class some flexibility, every 4 levels the DN will learn a spell from scrolls like Arcane Disciple feat. Light Armor prof: he cannot use them in BG series, so I will use shields up to small ones instead of armors. Light weapons + 1 martial weapon: in BG he's limited to blunt ones, so he will use all blunt weapons.
Malakai, the Dread Necromancer Is right now just outside FAI with some new companions. He's still level 1 and his stats are the following: and his spellbook is: Doom x2, Cure Light Wounds, Blindness, LMD
... We killed and slaughtered and murdered around the Sword Coast we left was burned down to the ground. Bandits, ogres, tasloi, xvarts towns and bears All collateral damage to Bhaalspawn affairs. Still, I admit I had fun with that crew As Imoen was there and we used to scr... talk.
Chapter 2: Roaming the Sword Coast, Of Gods and Bards by Garrick
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"Garrick? Hey, I was young, ok?... What? Yeah, he was better at writing. Imagine that."
Imoen at "The Volo interviews. Godhood: born or made"
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"She was not very popular around here, let me tell you. Sure, She solved the Mine problem. Or so she said, at least. But you know what? We were all relieved when she left. Bounty hunters, farmers dissapearing, Brague put down like a dog... At least she killed Noober. Gotta give her credit on that one."
Bardolan, Nashkell guard Captain at "The Volo interviews. Godhood: born or made"
Behind the scenes
Nothing spectacular so far. Cleared AR3100, 3600, 4100, 5200 and 5300. No problems with the Sirines thanks to the Green amulet. Killed 2 out of three flesh golems by hiding and shooting poisoned arrows and left the third one as I was low on healing potions. Brought Imoen around for Alaric's Cave traps. I usually don't want to risk it against groups and use Garrick to cast web on them as I have the ring of free action. Without the boots of speed, I find kitting very tiresome.
The mines were very easy, although I think I created a bug by backstabbing Mulahey without talking to him first. He just kept imploring me to open the chest as if he was Noober. Very strange. Anyway, he was powerless to Green amulet + ring of free action.
I want to have the evil dreams (RP) but my reputation kept going up so I brought Montaron down to Nashkell to murder a couple of farmers. He fumbled both backstabs and had to chase the farmers across the map as he kept failing to hit them with his throwing axes as well. Quite the assassin, that one.
I will now press on the main storyline, and come back to the wilderness if I need to cap PX at the end of the game, which is doubtful. So, hopefully, another upate when I have dealt with the bandit camp!
Icewind Gate 2: Frisk, Asriel, and Chara in BG2 (first post here)
Time to tackle Tolgerias! I decide to go with the same strategy that worked against Lavok: invisible Vipergout to weaken him until we're ready to pounce. The enemy tries divination magic, but we are immune.
In IWD2, Non-Detection protects all forms of invisibility from divination attacks; not just stealth and the Staff of the Magi and Dagger of the Star. This means we get party-wide 24-hour Spell Immunity: Divination, though it can be dispelled, unlike normal SI spells.
Chara gets blasted by Tolgerias' opening Horrid Wilting Chain Contingency. Vipergout prevents shapeshifting, so Chara can't revert to Will o' Wisp form until it runs out or gets dispelled. Tolgerias is immune to the vipers by virtue of Improved Mantle, but his friend only has PFMW, and suffers the full force of the vipers.
I figure all I have to do is wait out Tolgerias' buffs and bait out his offensive spells, so I don't break invisibility.
I was wrong.
Tolgerias likes summoning demons, and all summoned demons can see through invisibility. We're not ready to handle that. Especially when Cornugons have Lightning Bolt and Remove Magic spells, against which we have no defense.
Chara doesn't lose their buffs! But that's not a good thing.
That's really, really bad for us.
Normally, Chara would have no problem fending off Lightning Bolts. But as long as Chara has Vipergout active, they can't switch to Will o' Wisp form. Magic strikes them at full power.
Finally, a Remove Magic dispels Vipergout! But it's too late.
Asriel and Frisk leap into action, summoning new critters to keep the Cornugons busy. But we get unlucky against Remove Magic again. All our buffs go away.
Frisk has no immunities or save-boosting spells left. A single Chaos spell or Power Word: Stun would almost certainly be fatal. We simply cannot continue this fight.
We flee the area, rest, and return to collect Chara's belongings. But Tolgerias is active the moment we get back, and he teleports in to us while we're still buffing.
We flee the scene immediately. It was a wise choice--if we had waited much longer, Tolgerias' Chain Contingency could have destroyed us in seconds.
This time, we resurrect Chara and get ready for the real fight. An early Static Charge wounds Tolgerias, but it could have slain him with a little luck.
Asriel survives a blast from Horrid Wilting and hurries off to the east while Chara pesters Tolgerias with their useless Will o' Wisp attack. Tolgerias Breaches Chara to little effect, and Asriel rejoins the fight with +5 darts from the Cloak of Stars to bypass Tolgerias' Improved Mantle spell and chip away at his Stoneskins.
Asriel runs out of darts, and Tolgerias launches a new conjuration spell, far worse than any of his demons.
I have a setup for Chara that will let them handle Planetars in Will o' Wisp form--I can get their save vs. death very low, reducing the chance of a chunking--but this Planetar targets Frisk instead.
IWD2 spells means no Protection from Magical Weapons, ever. No Teleport Field, either. Frisk will never attain 100% immunity to Planetar vorpal strikes without just running around the battlefield like a demented chicken.
We run away. But I have one more idea: Holy Word!
Unfortunately for us, IWD2 Holy Word causes 1 round of stun on high-level enemies instead of deafness, and it affects neutral critters like Chara as well. This means we can't crush Tolgerias with spell failure from deafness. But we can stun him repeatedly, especially since Asriel gets an extra casting of Holy Word as a domain spell, courtesy of his Ilmater cleric kit.
Also, due to some bug, my custom Holy Word spell bypasses magic resistance. On the one hand, this disables Chara's Will o' Wisp form and renders its fantastic AC completely useless. On the other, it lets us stun Planetars and demons with no saving throw.
After Chara baits out Tolgerias' Horrid Wilting Chain Contingency, Asriel chain-casts Holy Word and pelts Tolgerias with Darts +5 in between castings.
But for some reason, none of the stun effects disrupts Tolgerias' spellcasting. Every time Holy Word expires, he continues casting that conjuration spell, which I can only assume is Summon Fallen Planetar. I need to do something else.
Frisk draws our Wand of Fire and blasts him. It works! He had no GOI spell to protect him.
Oddly enough, his pre-buffs never triggered before; only his Chain Contingency. Suddenly, all of them appear, including a GOI spell than would block any further Wand of Fire charges.
Frisk casts Improved Invisibility, bracing for Tolgerias' next spell. But Tolgerias is thinking ahead, and he buffs with a spell that makes him truly invulnerable.
SCS Absolute Immunity blocks ALL weapons for four rounds. Magic attacks besides Dispel Magic don't exist in IWD2, so we have no way of getting past any of his defenses.
And then we find that Tolgerias' first conjuration spell was not Summon Fallen Planetar.
His second one was.
We scurry away. The Planetar gives chase and lands a blow on Asriel despite his low AC, but there is no vorpal strike. We escape the battle.
Then I realize that Tolgerias is a completely optional battle. We can walk right past him whenever we like. So I go outside, kill a demon with brute force, turn invisible, and sneak past Tolgerias.
Except not everyone is actually invisible.
Once again, Frisk's strong base save vs. spell saves their life. We escape once more, and make our way back to Lavok once we activated the Planar Sphere's core engine machine thingy.
Valygar gets all philosophical when we get out...
...but he doesn't fit in with the terms of this run, so we boot him from the party and snatch the Ring of Acuity from his dead grandpa's finger. Or his dead great-grand-uncle, or however they were related.
We finally accept a stronghold, and Frisk acquires three apprentices. Other wizards have one apprentice, but we're especially awesome and cool.
The best one is Nara. She's so cute.
Chara quickly reminds Frisk that fraternizing with one's students is a fireable offense.
We wander around our new mage school/bachelor pad/interplanar whatchamacallit. Turns out Tolgerias never left.
He's just been camping out in the same room since we killed his girlfriend in there. We decide to give him some space, and maybe come back when he can't obliterate us with demons and Planetars.
We check in on our students to see if they've finished crafting the +1 dagger we're never going to use. Nara's just so cute!
She really needs to be a joinable NPC.
We pick the safe route for the apprentices, because Nara (unlike the other two apprentices) is guaranteed to die if you choose anything else for the final task. After graduation, we chat with Ribald Barterman and organize a mage to teleport the Solamnic Knights back to Sigil, and get a pretty Golden Girdle for our efforts. It will be important for dodging Planetar swords later on.
Next up: the Planar Prison. I want those Boots of Speed.
Belt had sent us to the Thives' Guild after we had defeated Sarevok in the Ducal Palace. I however did not want to meet him until I was completely ready. We therefore returned to Durlag's Tower for the equipment and experience that I had heard was available there. The battle horrors were no horror for us anymore and we annihilated them without even needing to buff. The same was true of most of the battles there. However we did buff when we had to face the doppelgangers:
After them we slowly but surely cleared the basement of everything except Love:
On the way back to Baldur's gate we tried to rest and were repeatedly attacked by no fewer than three ankheg at a time. They were no match for us:
We then decided that we were ready to meet Sarevok, for my experience didn't increase one iota and so we followed him to his secret base. We defeated a party of deadly killers who almost defeated us: Almost but not quite:
With some trepidation we followed him into the Temple of Bhaal where we again defeated Battle Horrors with ease:
They however were just minions. His cohorts were much more dangerous casting chaos tocause us to kill Yeslik, one of our own:
Then Tazok killed Ajantis with help from others:
The enemies' arrows of detonation then wiped out all my friends, but made killing my enemies a bit easier:
A combination of my bow and summoned monsters defeated Tazok:
Then finally it was Sarevok's turn:
After his death I was hoping for a breather, but a crash meant that I had to kill him once more. Whilst frustrating this was not altogether a bad thing as I didn't need anything like as many of my expensive arrows. To my relief somebody raised my friends from the dead and introduced me to another ally called Safana. It seems that it is not yet all over. Dragonspear awaits.
The downside of that is that the first time around I killed more Battle Horrors and went up a level. Que sera sera.
EDIT
One little thing that pleased me was that it wasn't just my party that has been resurrected, Liia was too. I don't know who paid for my party's resurrection, as I certainly didn't have the gold, but I'm glad that somebody had the compassion to do it. Yes, we made it to the Ducal Palace, but now I have to go looking for my party.
We decided to visit a Nashkel Carnival first. There some swindler Zeke tried to sell us a Stone to Flesh scroll for "mere" 500 gold if we wish to de-stone an unfortunate maiden near him. Jaheira thought otherwise though:
Branwen was released and sent to Jovial Juggler Inn for recuperation of such a stress while we check the north part of an area. This nearly cost me my life...
A single hit (even not critical) with Fire Arrow by Kobold Commando left me with 1 (One!) hp. Fortunately he missed the second one, I sipped a Potion of Healing and as there were three of those Commando over there we fled... Fled from a mere Kobolds, A KOBOLDS!!! What a shame... They chased us all over the map so we ran back to Nashkel and, as we need to catch our breath and easy our thoughts a bit, directly to the local inn. Not a wise move as it seems as there were another assassin over there, named Neira... Her buffs fired, she shrugs off my Command and began to chant something Necromantic. Imoen disrupted that with her Wand of Magic Missiles shot while Jaheira blinded Neira (if only briefly - one round) with Sunscorch:
Then Jaheira cast Entangle (a stupid move - silly me...) and the whole inn went loose... We desperately missed the mark with our ranged attacks and Neira Doomed Imoen but that was not a problem as she continued to empty her Wand on her. Khalid in turn saved vs Neira's Command and soon it was all over:
Nonetheless we can't rest in that inn anymore so went outside and to the local Mines area. Found a Bracers of Defense A.C. 8 in the tree trunk, rest and punished some Kobolds for our recent shame:
Back in Nashkel near the Barracks we've met a big muscled guy named Hodor (aka Minsc) who incessantly chattered with a hamster. He (or perhaps it was actually a Boo who did that?) enlisted us to save his Wychlaran Dynaheir. Another damsel in distress, how could anyone decline? We made a bee-line to the Gnoll Stronghold through the Xvart Village (leaving it alone for the moment), and Dryad Falls. There Ludrug choose Imoen as our champion for a duel and paid for that. We also helped a Dryad of Cloudpeaks with the defilers of the magesty of Nature.
One of those dropped a cursed Katana +2, Tsu-O-Shi and we found another cursed item in nearby cave (Studded Leather Armor +2: Missle Attraction). Seems, place needs some serious purification ceremony...
We also made a pretty neat exchange of a dead cat on a Protection from Undead scroll and even got a reputation increase, yeah! Hodor smashed to tiny bloody pieces the bridge guardians and I got a Medium Shield +1. Then a mere Xvart dropped a Wand of Lightning and we found a War Hammer +1 in a cave:
Dog-heads stood no chance vs furious Hodor and Dynaheir joined the Crew.
Back in Nashkel Imoen proved one more time her sniping skills vs Greywolf
and we headed to the Gibberling Mountains.
Lena asked us to assist Samuel and deliver him to Gellana Mirrorshade. "With ease!" said Boo packing him firmly in Hodor's backpack. Two ambushes in a row later and we finally made it through:
On occasion we returned Unshey her belt for she not drop her pants so often anymore and dismissed Hodor sending him to Joviar Juggler to entertain Branwen there (hope she will not be too angry on me for that...). East of there we met yet another damsel in great distress chased by Flaming Fist Mercenary. Not going to allow a coldblood murder just for being a dark skinned we intervened. Mercenary held Jaheira but was silenced, held in turn and eliminated (again it was Imoen, who made a coup de grace).
Viconia (that is a damsel's name) was wholeheartedly allowed into the Crew and now, with my cannon band assembled, the true adventure finally begins.
So interesting, @Serg_BlackStrider, to see differencies between your version and the EEs, like unfriendly Entangle. Good progress! And yes, kobold commandos are nasty!
At the ducal palace I fought the assassins alongside the Flaming Fist Guards. In the basement I collected my gold using knock to both get in and get out. I then killed Korlasz who had escaped and recaptured a doppelganger. I wonder if showing mercy was a bad idea. Once outside I rebuked a Flaming Fist Enforcer for being overly zealous in keeping order and a man who was overcharging those who were lodging with him. I agreed to take some gold to a moneylender and did so, killing a pickpocket on the way. I popped into sorcerous sundries, killed some robbers there, sold most of my jewellery and some surplus equipment, using the gold to buy wands. I was poor when I went in, poor when I came out, but at least my possessions are now useful. I now have more containers, and my wands of polymorphing and paralysation now have 100 charges. Others are fully charged, but their charges are much lower. I arranged for Robel to get a drink with the result that he was most grateful. I then found some hidden jewels and killed two Lords and a lady who were involved in treason. One of them had a pair of ostentatious boots that raise charisma by 1. It was a pity that I didn’t have them when I went shopping. One had a cloak of protection, and another a dagger +1. We helped a number of people harassed by the Flaming Fist and then Safana joined us. Her skills added somewhat to our coffers, she does not have a good alignment however, so when I met Glint I took him in her stead since he also has clerical ability. There has been no combat of note, hence no screenshots.
Comments
Journal of Spugnor
In Baldur's Gate we took a corpse to Arkion and pickpocketted both him and Nemphre. Imoen fumbled a bi with Nemphre so that whilst she got the ring, Nemphre became hostile and Imoen had to either kill her or flee. She chose the latter course of action.We were then attacked upstairs in Sorcerous Sundries where a summoned skeleton quicklly proved his worth.
Journal of Spugnor
We then left the Gate for a while to finish some unfinished business. In the process we killed a vicious mage or two.How do you link to the previous post specifically? Morrigan II managed to reach the point where her predecessor died, so will post again later.
Previous update found here
Next update found here
Spells memorized (standard stuff really, spell protections/Spell Thrust/Mirror Image/PfE 10' radius... and of course, the staple of our "tactics", Animate Dead) we set out for the undercellar.
We actually let the Skeleton Warriors do all the work. Krystin is way too high-level for us to want to tank her spells if we have an alternative. We do assist by throwing in 2 Remove Magic, which do precisely nothing about Krystin, but do knock down every buff from Slythe. He falls, and after a VERY long time (I think Krystin cast Stoneskin 4 times...) his wife does, too.
Yeah, the "Replace +1 weapons with fine ones" component has the annoying side-effect of making the Skeleton Warriors weaker by giving them fine weapons instead of +1 ones. I hope at least the 9 HD version gets a magical greatsword, otherwise they won't be very useful in BG2.
We swipe the invitations. Next up, the Iron Throne building (again). Cythandria doesn't stand a chance, distracted as she is by our trusty skeletons while Khalid and Jaheira see to her two Stone Golem guards.
Alright. Time to do or die. Literally. We must NOT fail to protect the Dukes during the palace battle.
We prepare with every buff available, and also hand out the really good stuff potion-wise: Storm Giant Strength, Invulnerability, Heroism... if it can help, we quaff it. We send our Skeleton Warriors ahead to form a (un-)living shield between the Dukes and their would-be assassins. The rest of the party moves in, and we're off.
Aldain has a 2x Horror sequencer ready, and it proves to be a good choice: Only a few Dopplegangers manage to make both their saves.
We're left with a Doppleganger Assassin, Greater Doppleganger, Doppleganger Mage and Doppleganger Shaman. Fortunately neither the Shaman nor Mage gets to prebuff. The Shaman falls to repeated applications of Wand of the Heavens by Branwen, never getting a spell off. The Mage lasts the longest, unsurprisingly, but is frequently interrupted (I dispatched 2 of our 5 Skeleton Warriors after him) and eventually dies without having accomplished much, Skeletons being notoriously unconcerned with Emotion: Hopelessness. With our veritable wall of bone shielding the (both still very much living) Dukes, Sarevok is powerless to do anything but flee, really.
Hooray, the dukes are saved!
We carve a path through the Thieve's Maze, and in very short order arrive at the underground city.
Here, we're really not in the mood for any risk-taking, and so the Sembian group gets to experience the joy of 6 Fireballs from afar. Which two of them survive, impressively enough, but it's just the melee goons, so they don't last long after.
I don't know what happened with Tamoko.. I had wanted to talk her out of her kamikaze stunt, but I guess she talked to Khalid instead of Aldain, the former not being known as a great orator. At any rate, she attacks, and gets the same treatment as the Sembians. Sorry Tamoko, we've come to far to die to a freak Flame Strike now...
Neither Tamoko's Full Plate +1 or the magical plate mail (which I forget the name of) found on the ground is of any use, of course, as we are a lightly armored party for the most part. Still, they look pretty in our inventory.
So, preparations. Improved Sarevok is no cake-walk. You literally can't kill him until you've killed all his cronies, he gets an extra follower (Diarmid, a fighter with bow/spear) who pops a Protection from Magic scroll, and whenever you kill a follower, a Skeleton Warrior (the nasty type with a Two Handed Sword) spawns in its place.
This battle tends to drag out, and Semaj in particular is so brutally over-leveled he will completely destroy your buffs anyway with a single Remove Magic, so short-duration buffs aren't much use.
Typically you'll want to use Oils of Speed (mainly so you can reposition quickly), any and every potion you have since they last fairly long, and just hope you don't fail a crucial save, given that Semaj and Angelo both enjoy their Chaos.
We load up on spells. Animate Dead (4x on Branwen, 1x on Aldain), Shadow Door on Aldain in case he needs a quick escape (the boost to saving throws from being Improved Invisible is golden), Chaos x1 and Hold Monster x1 on Xan, Greater Malison, Emotion, MGoI for when the spell-fighting is at its heaviest.
Other spells really don't matter much. We will be mostly using wands (Wands of Fire, Heavens, Monster Summoning), but that singular slot spent on Chaos will prove completely invaluable.
We move inside. Angelo and Tazok somehow know we've entered and immediately start gulping potions, but they don't come after us. We summon our bone-wall, apply PfE10'R, Mirror Image+Shield on Aldain and Xan (the latter using Shield Amulet), and blow a Haste scroll to Haste the skeletons. Everyone else quaffs an Oil of Speed, and we move up (as said, Semaj will likely dispel all our buffs anyway, so we wait with additional potions until they are needed).
Short dialogue, then it's fightin' time!
Two Skeletons are left to momentarily distract Sarevok and Tazok, while the other 3 are sent after Semaj. Diarmid shows himself, and we fortunately manage to get a Flamestrike in before he goes magic-immune, nice! Everyone focuses on Diarmid, though we haven't got much choice: Semaj has his ridicolous protections up, including PfMW and GoI (note: NOT Minor GoI which I had hoped. So our Spell Thrust is useless, and we didn't prepare Secret Word. Damnit! We'll have to wait him out then) so there's not much point attacking him, Angelo likewise is heavily protected, and Tazok is next to Sarevok so difficult to safely beat on for Khalid and Jaheira. Also, Tazok just isn't very dangerous, being a slow-moving pure melee monster.
During all this, Imoen managed to get a critical hit on Sarevok with an Arrow of Dispelling, removing his permanent haste. Yes! That's absolutely crucial, as hasted Sarevok is just really bad news.
Sarevok and Tazok take longer than I thought to cleave through our skeletons. I send another 2 to delay them further, keeping only one skeleton to soak up spells from Semaj. Somewhere around here, Diarmid drops, and we swiftly destroy his Skeletal form as well.
This is where things begin to unravel. Semaj kills his attendant Skeleton Warrior (I think using Melf's Minute Meteors), Angelo dispels our fire protections (we quaffed potions after the initial Remove Magic by Semaj) and starts firing Arrows of Detonation, and Sarevok + Tazok finally cut through the fourth Skeleton Warrior blocking them. We use Wand of Monster Summoning for more fodder, but they die rapidly. It's looking bleak, with both Semaj and Angelo casting spells at will, protected by GoI (MGoI for Angelo), Stoneskin and Mirror Image. Then, somehow, Xan... Xan the Glorious, Xan the Enchanter, throws his one and only Chaos spell into the mix... and it sticks on BOTH Semaj and Angelo, with Aldain dispelling Angelo's MGoI with Spell Thrust at the same time! Oh, happy day!
It's still, of course, pointless trying to harm Semaj (especially given his Fire Shield: Red), but Angelo... oh, Angelo is fair game. While Branwen is mercilessly beating Tazok down with incessant Flame Strikes, everyone else turns on Angelo.
We hammer and slash and bludgeon and burn him, but he survives! Comes out of his Confusion, goes invisible... and then Semaj steps up to the plate. Also free of his confusion, Semaj uses a scroll of Fireball aimed at our constantly resummoned fodder, burning them to a crisp, but in the process also taking care of Angelo for us. Thank you, Semaj!
Now that Semaj is down to 3rd level and lower spells (and that damnable Fire Shield: Red, along with GoI, have finally worn off), we beat him down very rapidly, assisted by dual Flame Strikes from Branwen and Jaheira.
Without his spell-casting buddies, Sarevok is worse than useless. We even manage to land a Slow on him, serving to further humiliate him.
This picture was taken roughly two rounds before the big bad drops. So helpless...
We did it! Hooray, hooray, hooray! Aldain is a Level 9 Human Conjurer, with 161000 XP, a spellbook filled to bursting with all manner of arcane secrets, and has shamelessly hogged all the tomes for himself!
I'd like to add that we, as always, got a bit lucky. Semaj got off Chaos as did Angelo, but Aldain made his save against the former, and Khalid had just enough time to activate the Greenstone Amulet to foil the latter. I imagine a confused Aldain could've spelt disaster quickly, had he wandered into 5 traps, or roamed too close to Sarevok. Still, it's not the first time fortune favored us this run.
Soon, we shall go to Amn, I think. For now, we'll lean back, have an Ale (only a thimble in Xan's case... lightweight), and contemplate our great success.
I am thinking of getting Dynaheir to join and do a few quests to raise her experience. Spugnor whilst not being at the level cap is almost there.
I am wondering whether Dynaheir still remembers spells learnt in BG1 when she gets to SoD.
I could save the scrolls instead if she doesn't.@Blind_Visionary Thank you! Sarevok and Davaeorn are my achilles heel, it seems.. no matter what tactic I adopt or how well I prepare, I always end up running these two battles a little too fast and loose for my liking (with Davaeorn we were a single failed save against Sunfire from an ended run). I like to think I would've been able to deal with it had Aldain gotten Confused, but you can never be sure.
Edit: Wait, I see buffs on the character portrait. Does the green scroll not negate potion buffs? If so, I didn't know that.
Continued from https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/826165/#Comment_826165
Because I didn't want to miss any new EE content, I looked up how to trigger the new NPC quests and learned that I could do Neera's quest right now. Turns out it was quite easy, with me only having to fight a few goblins, their hobgoblin boss and finally a red wizard party. I kept the level 1 Neera out of combat, while Jaheira used a wand of fear (affecting the lesser red wizard) and wand of the heavens charges. Imoen and Lirilis threw their nukes at Ekandor, the stoneskinned mage, and the others tried to keep the remaining enemies busy:
Now, for the actual reason I didn't enter the iron mines - I completely forgot about the firewine dungeon. Carefully fighting my way through traps and kobold commandos, I scouted Lendarn's position with an invisible Safana and started throwing some fireballs - however, his robe of fire resistance protected him quite well, so I just went for a backstab, not wanting to waste any more charges:
With that out of the way, I returned to the iron mines. Down at level 2, I once again relied on various fireball tools (I have enough wands and amulets, no need for potions yet) to deal with Hareishan and her troops:
I picked up Yeslick, and I even brought equipment for him with me (the +2 hammer, a full plate, a shield +1, a RoP +1, a sling +1 and bullets).
Level three went quite well, with both Natasha and the ogre mage unable to successfully cast a spell before the party took them out.
My Davaeorn tactic was very simple: Buff Khalid with hill giant strength, protection from fire, protection from lightning and just let him solo the mage, having some defensive potions at the ready in case something unexpected happens:
With his fireball and lightning spells doing nothing, his attempt at summoning disrupted and Khalid quickly dealing damage, the battle was quickly won.
Before really exploring the city of Baldur's Gate, I took care of the other two new companion quests. However, I soon realized I had to lower my reputation to pick up Dorn again, so I went stealing in Beregost, getting caught on purpose. BTW, unlike Neera and Rasaad Dorn somehow got some experience while not actually being in my party and rejoined as his level 6 version?
Anyway, the battle against Simmeon was fairly easy:
And maybe Imoen will be able to use this new elven mail when she regains her thief levels.
Finally, Rasaads quest took a little bit longer to finish. The dark moon monks were easy to defeat, but getting blinded all the time was really annoying, especially because of the long duration. I made it to the top of the cloudpeak mountains without any problems until right before the final battle - when a fireball trap killed Rasaad, forced me to go back to Nashkell and climb all the way up again...
Well, the battle itself was rather easy, though the reward was relatively slim. From an effort/reward perspective, Dorn's quest is certainly the most useful one to do, even if one doesn't plan to take him along (and he and Baeloth are so much stronger than Neera and Rasaad, it's not even funny. Once again, the real reward for playing evil characters is having access to better NPCs).
[edit: Not true: I forgot that Rasaad's quest provided me with the cursed belt of hill giant strength, which is just amazing for Khalid (I don't really need him to be able to use wands anyway)].
Now, I finally started doing all of the Baldur's Gate sidequests and battles. Only a few noteworthy things happened:
When returning Alatos' quest (as I already had helped Narlen), a short cutscene started - in which Narlen was supposed to backstab Resar. However, instead, nothing happened and Resar didn't even turn hostile. Instead, when talking to Alatos again, he acted as if I hadn't been able to secure the items, and I had to kill Resar myself. Very strange bug:
As you can see, Narlen even has a line of dialogue, but he just never appeared! It seems he just vanished from existence.
BTW, as you can see I decided to get Yeslick into my party once again. Afaik this version of the game has an experience cap (unlike BGT, which I normally use), so there's no reason not to play with a full party. I also recruited Eldoth and Skie for a short time, talked to Tiax and compared Alora to Safana, but I'm happy with Safana's thief ability points right now and don't want to wait until another thief is good enough at everything I need her to do. Yeslick fits into the party quite well, contributing chant, holy smite and other useful buffs, and he's a good melee fighter.
While completing all of the city sidequests, Lirilis gained her next level! The first fourth level spell - and it was: Fireshield: blue. Well. Another very mediocre pick. I'm really hoping the next (and propably final) level up will provide her with something really powerful.
Most of the tougher fights (ogre mages, helm&cloak party etc.) were quite easy with Imoen's new spell selection (which includes haste). The only two minor incidents occured when fighting a) the sewer ogre mage: I failed at preventing him from casting confusion, but only Khalid (who was wearing a stolen free action ring) was affected, and he still tanked the carrion crawlers while confused:
The other mishap happened during the first battle at Degrodel's house, where Safana got stuck in a corner while beging attacked by a helmed horror, forcing me to use another invisibilty potion to save her:
The second fight, however, went very well.
Finally, I went to investigate the Iron Throne, and for the final fight there I just lured the enemies downstairs into my waiting and buffed party:
Now, on to Candlekeep!
Current level: 8
Current randomized Spellbook:
First level spells: Chill touch, shocking grasp, chromatic orb, blindness, friends
Second level spells: Luck, deafness, stinking cloud
Third level spells: Hold undead, lightning bolt
Fourth level spells: Fireshield: blue
Enuhal
BG2EE, carrying over my character from BG1EE.
Core Rules at all times, and random hitpoints on level up.
Mods: Just SCS, almost a full install. I skipped Improved Vampires. My reasoning is that it's buggy (they get stuck in bat form a lot) and just no fun. Vampires go from being fairly easy with correct preparations to absolute nightmares for a party of almost any level. I also really don't appreciate having to chase them over the entire map when they turn into bats and run off.
Weidu log:
// Log of Currently Installed WeiDU Mods
// The top of the file is the 'oldest' mod
// ~TP2_File~ #language_number #component_number // [Subcomponent Name -> ] Component Name [ : Version]
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #1000 // Initialise mod (all other components require this): v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #1910 // Protection from Normal Missiles also blocks Arrows of Fire/Cold/Acid and similar projectiles without pluses: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2000 // Allow Spellstrike to take down a Protection from Magic scroll: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2010 // More consistent Breach spell (always affects liches and rakshasas; doesn't penetrate Spell Turning): v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2030 // Iron Skins behaves like Stoneskin (can be brought down by Breach): v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2041 // Modify the Harm spell so it does damage rather than reducing target to 1 hp -> Enemy and player Harm spells both do 150 hp of damage: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2050 // Allow individual versions of Spell Immunity to be placed into Contingencies and Spell Triggers: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2070 // Blade Barrier and Globe of Blades only affect hostile creatures: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2080 // Cap damage done by Skull Trap at 12d6: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2090 // Make Power-Word: Blind single-target: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2100 // Make Minute Meteors into +2 weapons: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2111 // Reduce the power of Inquisitors' Dispel Magic -> Inquisitors dispel at their level (not twice their level): v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2120 // Slightly weaken insect plague spells, and let fire shields block them: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2140 // Slightly increase the power of Mantle, Improved Mantle, and Absolute Immunity: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2150 // Make spell sequencers, spell triggers, and contingencies learnable by all mages: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2160 // Add an extra copy of some hard-to-find spell scrolls: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2170 // True Sight/True Seeing spells protect from magical blindness: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2180 // Prevent Simulacra and Projected Images from using magical items: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #3010 // Replace +1 arrows with nonmagical "fine" ones: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #3020 // Replace +1 magical weapons with Fine ones: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #3050 // Remove the Shield of Balduran from the game: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #3060 // Remove the invisibility power of the Staff of the Magi: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #3070 // Move Vhailor's Helm into Throne of Bhaal: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #3080 // Move the Cloak of Mirroring: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #3090 // Move the Robe of Vecna into Throne of Bhaal: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #3100 // Make the healing and resurrection powers of the Rod of Resurrection into separate abilities: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #3110 // Change Carsomyr so that its Dispel on contact power grants a saving throw: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4010 // Grant large, flying, non-solid or similar creatures protection from Web and Entangle: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4030 // Improved shapeshifting: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4093 // Decrease the rate at which reputation improves -> Reputation increases at about 1/4 the normal rate: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4180 // Make Freedom scrolls available earlier: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4215 // Remove unrealistically helpful items from certain areas: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4218 // Remove unrealistically convenient ammunition from certain areas -> Remove all ammo from random containers: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4230 // Delay the arrival of the "bonus merchants" in the Adventurers' Mart and the Copper Coronet: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4240 // Treat mages' and priests' High-Level Abilities as innate abilities rather than memorisable spells (each may be taken only once): v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #5000 // Ease-of-use party AI: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #5010 // Move Boo into Minsc's pack: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #5020 // Remove the blur graphic effect from the Cloak of Displacement: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #5030 // Remove animation from the Cloak of Mirroring (leave it for other spells and effects that use the same graphic): v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #5900 // Initialise AI components (required for all tactical and AI components): v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6000 // Smarter general AI: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6010 // Better calls for help: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6020 // Add high-level abilities (HLAs) to spellcasters -> Only selected spellcasters in Throne of Bhaal get HLAs: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6030 // Smarter Mages -> Mages cast some short-duration spells instantly at start of combat, to simulate pre-battle casting: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6040 // Smarter Priests -> Priests cast some short-duration spells instantly at start of combat, to simulate pre-battle casting: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6104 // Potions for NPCs -> All of the potions dropped by slain enemies break and are lost: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6200 // Improved Spiders: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6500 // Improved golems: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6510 // Improved fiends -> Fiends have about 50 percent more hit points than normal: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6520 // Smarter genies -> Genies have about 50 percent more hit points than normal: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6530 // Smarter celestials -> Celestials have about 50 percent more hit points than normal: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6540 // Smarter dragons -> Dragons have a substantial hit point increase: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6551 // Smarter beholders -> Don't give beholder rays any chance of burning through spell protections; beholder antimagic blocks all spells, including harmful ones, for a round (simulates D&D rules): v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6561 // Smarter mind flayers -> Illithids have enhanced damage resistance; Illithids can see through invisibility (matches Tactics mod): v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6570 // Smarter githyanki: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6590 // Smarter Throne of Bhaal final villain: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8000 // Make the starting dungeon slightly harder: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8020 // Spellcasting Demiliches: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8030 // More resilient trolls: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8050 // Improved Random Encounters: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8061 // Improved de'Arnise Keep ("Tactics Remix") -> Enhanced spirit trolls (as in Tactics): v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8070 // Improved Unseeing Eye: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8100 // Improved battle with Irenicus in Spellhold: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8110 // Improved Sahuagin: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8120 // Improved Beholder hive (adapted from Quest Pack): v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8130 // Prevent resting in the Illithid city: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8140 // Slightly Improved Drow -> Upgrade Ust Natha's defences: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8150 // Slightly Improved Watcher's Keep: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8160 // Improved Fire Giant temple: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8170 // Enhanced Sendai's Enclave: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8180 // Improved Abazigal's Lair: v30
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8190 // Improved Minor Encounters: v30
Aldain, Human Conjurer: BG2EE update 1
Final BG1EE update found here
Next update found here
I emerge into Irenicus' dungeon with a full set of spells memorized, albeit not an optimal setup for the current predicament. Nevertheless, an Animate Dead, MGoI, Stoneskin and some damage spells remain useful. The entire initial dungeon goes very smoothly; we rest once and have a healthy supply of Potions of Extra Healing by the end.
Now, we're out and resting up at the Gilded Vale. My intended party is Minsc / Jaheira / Yoshimo later replaced by Imoen / Anomen / Mazzy. Bit of a difference from our BG1 party, we'll be a lot beefier this time around. So, first thing's first, we need to go pick up Anomen. No worries there, though when leaving the Slums we of course get ambushed by Suna Seni and friends.
We do mostly alright, but Suna herself just won't stop dogging Yoshimo's steps. I had Invisibility in a Minor Sequencer and tried to target Yoshimo with it, but as the sequencer also contained Mirror Image, it for some reason refused to cast on him? I would've thought Invisibility would go off, but the Mirror Image would fail. Annoying.
Once their no-name Mage lands a Slow on Yoshimo, Suna wears him down to nothing a few seconds before she falls herself. This is apparently an omen of things to come...
Here I momentarily slipped up a little: I not only forgot to travel to the Government district to talk with Delyn (Delryn? The boy from Imnesvale) to get Imnesvale to show up on the map, I also just went to the Gate district and straight to Windspear Hills. Not sure what I was thinking, as I had no business there... of course, I end up having to kill off a bunch of paladins. At least we can use their Plate Mail this early on.
Following this, we spend the night at Garren's, followed by the usual ambush. For some strange reason, Plath Rededge does not prebuff with Iron Skins (maybe she's just a cleric?), and so goes down very swiftly.
It's time for our first close call. On our way back to Athkatla to rectify our mistake, we get the dozen or so Orogs with a few slavers ambush. These guys are just sickeningly dangerous in SCS, not sure if it's intended. They all pop Barbarian Rage, hit for 20-25 damage (and they hit almost every swing), and they're backed up by a no-name Mage who seems to have memorized nothing but Chaos in her 5th level slots.
It actually looks bleak for a while. Minsc gets confused, but thankfully runs off to the edge, so he doesn't get swarmed and killed. Anomen is ALSO confused, and likewise buggered off somewhere. So it's Aldain, Jaheira and Yoshimo, frantically running around, trying to avoid the Orogs while plinking at the Mage with whatever we've got on hand. Of course, the Orogs occasionally catch up, doling out some severe pain. Aldain's last Stoneskin gives out, just as he fires off a Chaos, which surprisingly enough sticks (even on the Mage), and we manage to sort out the situation (Minsc and Anomen finally shaking off their confusion helps), though it's too late for Jaheira, who falls (not chunked, thankfully). I really don't like this ambush...
We make it back, have Anomen raise Jaheira (at least that saves us some money), get Imnesvale to pop on the map, and head back out. Minsc has the Sword of Chaos +2 and Jaheira the Staff Spear +2, courtesy of Xzar (yeah, on the way we of course got yet another ambush, the one with the poisoned harper), so we can hurt the shadows. We've even prepared a few Free Action on Anomen to render the Shadow Fiends moot.
A few relatively easy battles later, our party is finally complete. For some reason, we got Mazzy at her 161k XP version, but immediately after this screenshot she gained about 100k XP. Bug or intended? I haven't played BG2EE in a while, so don't know. It's good news anyway, as it means we get to dictate where her L9 proficiency goes (she gets a pip in Axes, as there are so many nice ones in SoA, and in the very very long run I want her wielding Axe of the Unyielding +5).
As long as we're here, we may as well clear the dungeon up to the Shade Lord (whom we will not be engaging, since Improved Shade Lord is just... wrong. I contemplated not installing him, but went with it anyway. We'll save him for much later). There's not much interesting loot, but there are a few L6 spell scrolls we want. We don't have much trouble, apart from the Bone Golem dealing frightening amounts of damage before going down. I guess it heard the Shadows calling for help and came on over.
We also finished the Ibratha quest, because Mirror Image on Mazzy is nice.
Alright. It's time for red-hot anger. We make it back to Athkatla uninterrupted, and help Anomen with his sister's murder (we take the good path, given that we don't want him going nuts later). On the way to the Gilded Vale, we are, of course, ambushed by yet another party of no-names. Literally, they don't have names. Slaver, Slaver, Slaver, Slaver Mage. Pfeh.
So we get down to brass tacks. I notice that Yoshimo takes 6 acid damage from something, but don't think much of it. We grind the slavers down, and then the Mage.. oh that bloody Mage. The Mage, the no-name, anonymous, crappy Slaver Mage casts Chromatic Orb at Yoshimo. Apparently this Mage is at least level 10, but not level 12 or higher. Yoshimo fails his save... and is petrified.
At this point, I pause the game to collect my thoughts. We have no Stone to Flesh scroll (neither the Mage spell or the green scroll), and we're in an "ambush" area. It should be fine though; We'll buy a green scroll, then keep moving between zones to trigger another ambush, and Yoshimo should be there waiting for us. Alright, we got a plan!
I unpause. Slaver Mage starts to cast an Evocation, and I'll be damned if I don't think she's flippin' us off while doing it. Her Sunfire finishes, and, well... at least Yoshimo doesn't have to worry about his Geas anymore. Or anything at all, for that matter. The rubble formerly known as Yoshimo can be seen to the left in this screenshot.
You'll note this Mage almost killed off a large swath of the party while at it. We manage to cleave through her endless Stoneskins before anyone else drops, however. At this point I had to pause and rant a bit at the screen to keep from exploding. Yoshimo, WHY did you fail your save vs spell with a +6 bonus?! WHY was the Mage precisely in the span L10-L11? WHY didn't we kill her faster? Sigh.
We go to the Slums, and pick up Jan (we've little choice, we need a thief until Imoen gets back). I leave the party at the Copper Coronet. I loaded an autosave, just to check what stuff we permanently lost now that Yoshimo is no more. Thankfully, it was nothing critical: A few potions that are easily replaced, some Bracers AC8 intended for Imoen, and (this is annoying) some 20 scrolls I was saving for her to memorize. Only a Contingency scroll was above L4 though (and she already knows Contingency when you pick her up), and nothing critical or rare.
I've been thinking about how to prevent this from happening again, but I really don't know how. It's incredibly difficult to kill pre-buffed SCS mages before they get several spells off (they're freakishly annoying in how they seemingly on purpose target characters trying to dispel their illusions with Melf's Minute Meteors, though perhaps this is just my imagination). And as far as I know, every single SCS ambush contains at least one Mage. I'm wondering if I should just refrain from fighting the ambushes (I always travel under Invisibility, so just running away is an option)? They're good XP, but usually garbage loot, and if it means I risk loosing characters permanently... eh, I'll think about it. I'm not sure if I'll continue the run, should I suffer a perma-death of one of my preferred party members. Hopefully I won't have to find out.
Anyway, as said, the party is currently at the Copper Coronet, preparing to do some simple stuff we haven't cleared yet (the Circus and the Slavers). Aldain is now a Level 10 Human Conjurer (very soon Level 11), and rolled a 6 (Hooray!) for hitpoints at level up. Note that he has more HP than he should: It seems that, even though my familiar got removed on importing, he kept the bonus hitpoints from it, in addition to the 12 HP he got from resummoning it. Think it's a known bug, but I'm not complaining.
In Candlekeep, I explored the library, killed the iron throne leaders, cleared the catacombs and eventuall fought Prat, buffed with bless, chant, remove fear, haste and defensive harmony:
Back at Baldur's Gate, I first rescued Eltan, got arrested, killed Sarevok's girlfriend, and then fought Slythe and Krystin, using Albruin's very useful detect invisibility option.
The duchal palace fight was relatively close - I decided not to use any potions and aoe spells, which resulted in Liia dying and Belt taking some damage. Ultimately, the party was victorious, and more importantly, Lirilis gained her next (and final) level, as did Imoen, who thus regains her thief abilities.
Now, for my randomized spellpicks: For level 2, we got detect invisibilty - fairly useful. Level 3 is skull trap, which is by all accounts a great spell, except that I personally, despite knowing its power, hate it and pretty much never use it. Ah well, maybe I'll give it another chance. Fourth level is farsight. Well, if I ever want to abuse the farsight + summons interaction in BG2, I can do that know... Not a big fan of that, it feels a little bit cheesy.
Overall, I'm not thrilled with my BG1 spellpicks, though they could certainly be worse. What I really miss is a decent defensive spell (fireshield: blue doesn't really count, as the only defense it actually improves is cold resistance, which is mostly useless).
Now, with Imoen regaining her thief levels, I kicked Safana out of the party and picked up my final party member: Ajantis. He's joining because he can use bastard swords (great for Balduran's Island), and you can never have enough fighting power.
Anyway, starting with TotSC content, I visited the ice island first. I removed Khalid's belt with a scroll and had him use a protection from magic scroll (since, for some reason, while you can still cast most green scrolls on other people, it seems that in EE, the ability to do that with protection from magic has been removed).
Khalid soloed most of the place, with the party only helping against the Ankhegs:
The experience here brought Ajantis to level 6. Both of his proficiency points were invested in dual wielding. He'll mostly be using Albruin + Kondar.
At Balduran's Island, the party quickly made their way to the shipwreck. In addition to buffs, I used some potions here: Defense for Lirilis, Agility for everyone with less than 18 dexterity, strength and hilll giant strength for everyone with below 18 strength and heroism for those who could use it. This provided the party with good damage output and armor class score - since everyone had to be involved in melee combat.
Upstairs, Karoug was defeated by Khalid, Jaheira and Ajantis who used the anti-werewolf weapons (though only Ajantis has the proficiencies to actually use them well):
Kaishas was defeated in the same way, and although Mendas and his companion did some damage to no longer potion-buffed party, they didn't really stand a chance:
Now, Durlag's Tower and Sarevok himself remain.
Current level: 9
Current randomized Spellbook:
First level spells: Chill touch, shocking grasp, chromatic orb, blindness, friends
Second level spells: Luck, deafness, stinking cloud, detect invisibility
Third level spells: Hold undead, lightning bolt, skull trap
Fourth level spells: Fireshield (blue), farsight
Enuhal
Class: Cleric/Mage
Race: Half-Elf
Spells: Can cast all Necromancy school spells and those he can cast in d&d. For example Spook, Blindness, Dispel Magic, Acid Fog and so on even if not from necromancy.
Charnel touch: unfortunately this ability cannot be replied properly, the DN will be able to cast cure spells to cure ONLY himself as he has Tomb Tainted Soul feat.
Advanced learning: to reply this ability and give the class some flexibility, every 4 levels the DN will learn a spell from scrolls like Arcane Disciple feat.
Light Armor prof: he cannot use them in BG series, so I will use shields up to small ones instead of armors.
Light weapons + 1 martial weapon: in BG he's limited to blunt ones, so he will use all blunt weapons.
Malakai, the Dread Necromancer Is right now just outside FAI with some new companions.
He's still level 1 and his stats are the following:
and his spellbook is: Doom x2, Cure Light Wounds, Blindness, LMD
I pick up where I left off with Morrigan here
Story
... We killed and slaughtered and murdered around
the Sword Coast we left was burned down to the ground.
Bandits, ogres, tasloi, xvarts towns and bears
All collateral damage to Bhaalspawn affairs.
Still, I admit I had fun with that crew
As Imoen was there and we used to scr... talk.
Chapter 2: Roaming the Sword Coast, Of Gods and Bards by Garrick
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"Garrick? Hey, I was young, ok?... What? Yeah, he was better at writing. Imagine that."
Imoen at "The Volo interviews. Godhood: born or made"
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"She was not very popular around here, let me tell you. Sure, She solved the Mine problem. Or so she said, at least. But you know what? We were all relieved when she left. Bounty hunters, farmers dissapearing, Brague put down like a dog... At least she killed Noober. Gotta give her credit on that one."
Bardolan, Nashkell guard Captain at "The Volo interviews. Godhood: born or made"
Behind the scenes
The mines were very easy, although I think I created a bug by backstabbing Mulahey without talking to him first. He just kept imploring me to open the chest as if he was Noober. Very strange. Anyway, he was powerless to Green amulet + ring of free action.
I want to have the evil dreams (RP) but my reputation kept going up so I brought Montaron down to Nashkell to murder a couple of farmers. He fumbled both backstabs and had to chase the farmers across the map as he kept failing to hit them with his throwing axes as well. Quite the assassin, that one.
I will now press on the main storyline, and come back to the wilderness if I need to cap PX at the end of the game, which is doubtful. So, hopefully, another upate when I have dealt with the bandit camp!
(first post here)
Time to tackle Tolgerias! I decide to go with the same strategy that worked against Lavok: invisible Vipergout to weaken him until we're ready to pounce. The enemy tries divination magic, but we are immune.
In IWD2, Non-Detection protects all forms of invisibility from divination attacks; not just stealth and the Staff of the Magi and Dagger of the Star. This means we get party-wide 24-hour Spell Immunity: Divination, though it can be dispelled, unlike normal SI spells.
Chara gets blasted by Tolgerias' opening Horrid Wilting Chain Contingency. Vipergout prevents shapeshifting, so Chara can't revert to Will o' Wisp form until it runs out or gets dispelled. Tolgerias is immune to the vipers by virtue of Improved Mantle, but his friend only has PFMW, and suffers the full force of the vipers.
I figure all I have to do is wait out Tolgerias' buffs and bait out his offensive spells, so I don't break invisibility.
I was wrong.
Tolgerias likes summoning demons, and all summoned demons can see through invisibility. We're not ready to handle that. Especially when Cornugons have Lightning Bolt and Remove Magic spells, against which we have no defense.
Chara doesn't lose their buffs! But that's not a good thing.
That's really, really bad for us.
Normally, Chara would have no problem fending off Lightning Bolts. But as long as Chara has Vipergout active, they can't switch to Will o' Wisp form. Magic strikes them at full power.
Finally, a Remove Magic dispels Vipergout! But it's too late.
Asriel and Frisk leap into action, summoning new critters to keep the Cornugons busy. But we get unlucky against Remove Magic again. All our buffs go away.
Frisk has no immunities or save-boosting spells left. A single Chaos spell or Power Word: Stun would almost certainly be fatal. We simply cannot continue this fight.
We flee the area, rest, and return to collect Chara's belongings. But Tolgerias is active the moment we get back, and he teleports in to us while we're still buffing.
We flee the scene immediately. It was a wise choice--if we had waited much longer, Tolgerias' Chain Contingency could have destroyed us in seconds.
This time, we resurrect Chara and get ready for the real fight. An early Static Charge wounds Tolgerias, but it could have slain him with a little luck.
Asriel survives a blast from Horrid Wilting and hurries off to the east while Chara pesters Tolgerias with their useless Will o' Wisp attack. Tolgerias Breaches Chara to little effect, and Asriel rejoins the fight with +5 darts from the Cloak of Stars to bypass Tolgerias' Improved Mantle spell and chip away at his Stoneskins.
Asriel runs out of darts, and Tolgerias launches a new conjuration spell, far worse than any of his demons.
I have a setup for Chara that will let them handle Planetars in Will o' Wisp form--I can get their save vs. death very low, reducing the chance of a chunking--but this Planetar targets Frisk instead.
IWD2 spells means no Protection from Magical Weapons, ever. No Teleport Field, either. Frisk will never attain 100% immunity to Planetar vorpal strikes without just running around the battlefield like a demented chicken.
We run away. But I have one more idea: Holy Word!
Unfortunately for us, IWD2 Holy Word causes 1 round of stun on high-level enemies instead of deafness, and it affects neutral critters like Chara as well. This means we can't crush Tolgerias with spell failure from deafness. But we can stun him repeatedly, especially since Asriel gets an extra casting of Holy Word as a domain spell, courtesy of his Ilmater cleric kit.
Also, due to some bug, my custom Holy Word spell bypasses magic resistance. On the one hand, this disables Chara's Will o' Wisp form and renders its fantastic AC completely useless. On the other, it lets us stun Planetars and demons with no saving throw.
After Chara baits out Tolgerias' Horrid Wilting Chain Contingency, Asriel chain-casts Holy Word and pelts Tolgerias with Darts +5 in between castings.
But for some reason, none of the stun effects disrupts Tolgerias' spellcasting. Every time Holy Word expires, he continues casting that conjuration spell, which I can only assume is Summon Fallen Planetar. I need to do something else.
Frisk draws our Wand of Fire and blasts him. It works! He had no GOI spell to protect him.
Oddly enough, his pre-buffs never triggered before; only his Chain Contingency. Suddenly, all of them appear, including a GOI spell than would block any further Wand of Fire charges.
Frisk casts Improved Invisibility, bracing for Tolgerias' next spell. But Tolgerias is thinking ahead, and he buffs with a spell that makes him truly invulnerable.
SCS Absolute Immunity blocks ALL weapons for four rounds. Magic attacks besides Dispel Magic don't exist in IWD2, so we have no way of getting past any of his defenses.
And then we find that Tolgerias' first conjuration spell was not Summon Fallen Planetar.
His second one was.
We scurry away. The Planetar gives chase and lands a blow on Asriel despite his low AC, but there is no vorpal strike. We escape the battle.
Then I realize that Tolgerias is a completely optional battle. We can walk right past him whenever we like. So I go outside, kill a demon with brute force, turn invisible, and sneak past Tolgerias.
Except not everyone is actually invisible.
Once again, Frisk's strong base save vs. spell saves their life. We escape once more, and make our way back to Lavok once we activated the Planar Sphere's core engine machine thingy.
Valygar gets all philosophical when we get out...
...but he doesn't fit in with the terms of this run, so we boot him from the party and snatch the Ring of Acuity from his dead grandpa's finger. Or his dead great-grand-uncle, or however they were related.
We finally accept a stronghold, and Frisk acquires three apprentices. Other wizards have one apprentice, but we're especially awesome and cool.
The best one is Nara. She's so cute.
Chara quickly reminds Frisk that fraternizing with one's students is a fireable offense.
We wander around our new mage school/bachelor pad/interplanar whatchamacallit. Turns out Tolgerias never left.
He's just been camping out in the same room since we killed his girlfriend in there. We decide to give him some space, and maybe come back when he can't obliterate us with demons and Planetars.
We check in on our students to see if they've finished crafting the +1 dagger we're never going to use. Nara's just so cute!
She really needs to be a joinable NPC.
We pick the safe route for the apprentices, because Nara (unlike the other two apprentices) is guaranteed to die if you choose anything else for the final task. After graduation, we chat with Ribald Barterman and organize a mage to teleport the Solamnic Knights back to Sigil, and get a pretty Golden Girdle for our efforts. It will be important for dodging Planetar swords later on.
Next up: the Planar Prison. I want those Boots of Speed.
Journal of Spugnor
Belt had sent us to the Thives' Guild after we had defeated Sarevok in the Ducal Palace. I however did not want to meet him until I was completely ready. We therefore returned to Durlag's Tower for the equipment and experience that I had heard was available there. The battle horrors were no horror for us anymore and we annihilated them without even needing to buff. The same was true of most of the battles there. However we did buff when we had to face the doppelgangers:The downside of that is that the first time around I killed more Battle Horrors and went up a level. Que sera sera.
EDIT
One little thing that pleased me was that it wasn't just my party that has been resurrected, Liia was too.Chapter II - Damsels In Distress.
TOC:
1. Einleitung.
2. Chapter I - Trapped and Scared.
We decided to visit a Nashkel Carnival first. There some swindler Zeke tried to sell us a Stone to Flesh scroll for "mere" 500 gold if we wish to de-stone an unfortunate maiden near him. Jaheira thought otherwise though:
Branwen was released and sent to Jovial Juggler Inn for recuperation of such a stress while we check the north part of an area. This nearly cost me my life...
A single hit (even not critical) with Fire Arrow by Kobold Commando left me with 1 (One!) hp. Fortunately he missed the second one, I sipped a Potion of Healing and as there were three of those Commando over there we fled... Fled from a mere Kobolds, A KOBOLDS!!! What a shame...
They chased us all over the map so we ran back to Nashkel and, as we need to catch our breath and easy our thoughts a bit, directly to the local inn. Not a wise move as it seems as there were another assassin over there, named Neira... Her buffs fired, she shrugs off my Command and began to chant something Necromantic. Imoen disrupted that with her Wand of Magic Missiles shot while Jaheira blinded Neira (if only briefly - one round) with Sunscorch:
Then Jaheira cast Entangle (a stupid move - silly me...) and the whole inn went loose... We desperately missed the mark with our ranged attacks and Neira Doomed Imoen but that was not a problem as she continued to empty her Wand on her. Khalid in turn saved vs Neira's Command and soon it was all over:
Nonetheless we can't rest in that inn anymore so went outside and to the local Mines area. Found a Bracers of Defense A.C. 8 in the tree trunk, rest and punished some Kobolds for our recent shame:
Back in Nashkel near the Barracks we've met a big muscled guy named Hodor (aka Minsc) who incessantly chattered with a hamster. He (or perhaps it was actually a Boo who did that?) enlisted us to save his Wychlaran Dynaheir. Another damsel in distress, how could anyone decline?
We made a bee-line to the Gnoll Stronghold through the Xvart Village (leaving it alone for the moment), and Dryad Falls. There Ludrug choose Imoen as our champion for a duel and paid for that. We also helped a Dryad of Cloudpeaks with the defilers of the magesty of Nature.
One of those dropped a cursed Katana +2, Tsu-O-Shi and we found another cursed item in nearby cave (Studded Leather Armor +2: Missle Attraction). Seems, place needs some serious purification ceremony...
We also made a pretty neat exchange of a dead cat on a Protection from Undead scroll and even got a reputation increase, yeah!
Hodor smashed to tiny bloody pieces the bridge guardians and I got a Medium Shield +1. Then a mere Xvart dropped a Wand of Lightning and we found a War Hammer +1 in a cave:
Dog-heads stood no chance vs furious Hodor and Dynaheir joined the Crew.
Back in Nashkel Imoen proved one more time her sniping skills vs Greywolf
and we headed to the Gibberling Mountains.
Lena asked us to assist Samuel and deliver him to Gellana Mirrorshade. "With ease!" said Boo packing him firmly in Hodor's backpack. Two ambushes in a row later and we finally made it through:
On occasion we returned Unshey her belt for she not drop her pants so often anymore and dismissed Hodor sending him to Joviar Juggler to entertain Branwen there (hope she will not be too angry on me for that...).
East of there we met yet another damsel in great distress chased by Flaming Fist Mercenary. Not going to allow a coldblood murder just for being a dark skinned we intervened. Mercenary held Jaheira but was silenced, held in turn and eliminated (again it was Imoen, who made a coup de grace).
Viconia (that is a damsel's name) was wholeheartedly allowed into the Crew and now, with my cannon band assembled, the true adventure finally begins.
Current state:
Grim Face: Cleric (3) / Illusionist (2), 39 kills (Huge Spider);
Jaheira: Fighter (2) / Druid (2), 62 kills (Winter Wolf);
Khalid: Fighter (3), 121 kills (Ghast);
Imoen: Thief (4), 92 kills (Greywolf);
Dynaheir: Invoker (3), 6 kills (Gibberling);
Viconia: Cleric (4), just joined.
to be continued...
Journal of Spugnor
At the ducal palace I fought the assassins alongside the Flaming Fist Guards.In the basement I collected my gold using knock to both get in and get out. I then killed Korlasz who had escaped and recaptured a doppelganger. I wonder if showing mercy was a bad idea.
Once outside I rebuked a Flaming Fist Enforcer for being overly zealous in keeping order and a man who was overcharging those who were lodging with him.
I agreed to take some gold to a moneylender and did so, killing a pickpocket on the way.
I popped into sorcerous sundries, killed some robbers there, sold most of my jewellery and some surplus equipment, using the gold to buy wands. I was poor when I went in, poor when I came out, but at least my possessions are now useful. I now have more containers, and my wands of polymorphing and paralysation now have 100 charges. Others are fully charged, but their charges are much lower.
I arranged for Robel to get a drink with the result that he was most grateful. I then found some hidden jewels and killed two Lords and a lady who were involved in treason. One of them had a pair of ostentatious boots that raise charisma by 1. It was a pity that I didn’t have them when I went shopping. One had a cloak of protection, and another a dagger +1.
We helped a number of people harassed by the Flaming Fist and then Safana joined us. Her skills added somewhat to our coffers, she does not have a good alignment however, so when I met Glint I took him in her stead since he also has clerical ability.
There has been no combat of note, hence no screenshots.